tammy stone writes: words, images and work dedicated to making a happy space for you and me.

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For you, who are
an extension of me,
an offering of all
I’ve ever had to give,
though it only appears
to me now, a sun
blooming over the mountain
on a full moon dawn
like the warrior
of life and of light
that has been waiting
for me to turn toward it
every morning of my life.
I am here.
I stand before the mountain,
in awe of her perseverance,
patience, mammoth strength,
and the sun that emerges
to the sound of birds chirping
and distant cars rumbling
fills the other half
of the world.
Sun and mountain fill the frame,
one stately shape making room
for pure awe of the space
that surrounds it, pink,
pure and new,
and this is what I offer you,
my full, hopeful presence
that will never take away
from the vastness of yours.

I rush for where
the thistles and moss
will absorb the sounds
of my racing mind
and where the thudding
of my heart
can run alongside
those of the others
escaping their enemies,
running toward survival,
until we are one organism,
moving madly, at first,
and then, as though
in spontaneous awareness
of an internal need,
we pause, and slow,
and it’s the greatest
silence we have ever known,
sonorous and pure,
and we can hear
the ladybug flap her wings,
though she decides to stay,
and the grass is heaving
its gratitude for the earth
sustaining it from below.
The birds slice through sky
to nestle in the treetops,
their every movement
conducing a forest symphony
for our delighted ears.
Our own heartbeats
are making sweet music,
calm, rhythmic now,
because we, too, have stayed,
one for the other,
under the watchful moon
and the playful sun.

Today is a new day.
There is a little less here today
than there was before,
and there is also a little more.
Everyday, the moon
grows to perfect expansion,
or contracts until we are
in our night of darkness.
Everyday, we reflect
on what no longer serves us,
and build the courage
to invite more of what we need:
for our growth,
for the betterment of a world
that doesn’t need us,
and needs us fully,
and welcomes us so dearly.
Everyday, as dawn breaks,
and we peel the glorious
wreckage of night from our skin,
and shake loose from the dreams
of shattered yesterdays
and broken tomorrows,
we take a moment too look
for what as arrived, again,
just the same, and a little different,
anticipating our full participation
that can alter it all,
the course of our future,
in one small instant.
Today is the day to begin.
One decision, and liberation is ours.
One breath in the name of love,
and love is forever ours.

There are so many ways
to be, to say, to act, to feel,
There are so many avenues
on the path from here to there,
So many roads that have led us
to this converged, crystal moment
that we know in our bones is full
of tremendous suffering and sorrow.
The anger has erupted, is spilling over;
we are not attending to the pain inside.
We are fighting every last instinct
to come forward with our deep dark stories
and nobody is listening, really hearing us.
We are not seeing; we are not being seen.
Our stories, which need air to heal
are fighting for every last breath.
We are trying to claw our way out,
But find ourselves stuck where we started,
and we know – it can’t go on like this.
It can’t go on. We can’t. And we won’t.
So we are here, but we are not here.
The principles that can carry us forward
will never desert us, but we’ve forgotten
how to reach for them, and to learn
how to be what we already are,
when we attend to the softest self
that lies underneath volcanic explosions
and swims in an ocean of time,
before and after history, outside of all this.
Let us not forget our history,
Let us honour each and every one,
But let us also not forget
the love, compassion, respect, heart
that allow for herstory’s continuance.
That bring us to our only and true nature
that ebbs, flows, screams, soothes,
but always comes back to this,
a warrior’s kind and gentle persistence.

I want to start again,
Be conditioned by trees,
As though I am
In a position to come awake
For the first time.
I want to find myself
Crawling on forest growth,
And I want to use a rock
To steady myself
As I take these first steps.
I want my first friends
To be grasshoppers
And butterflies
And owls of the night,
And I want to learn early on,
That death is life’s way,
And that this is not
Something to be scared of.
I want to come alive again
to the sound of wind
Carrying everything
To the place needs to go,
And to invite everyone
To arrive with me there.